


Buffy by the Hundreds: Season One

by Stayawhile



Series: Buffy by the Hundreds [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 15:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14288349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stayawhile/pseuds/Stayawhile
Summary: Long ago, in a faraway galaxy called LiveJournal, there was a community called Open on Sunday. Each Sunday, a prompt would be posted, and during the week participants would write a drabble (a story of exactly one hundred words) based on the prompt. I have compiled what I wrote there into a series called Buffy by the Hundreds.These 13 chapters take place during Season One.





	1. Cup

Jesse and Xander are waiting for her at the bottom of the steps in front of the school’s main entrance, watching the crowd. It’s a bright spring afternoon, and Willow can overhear them as she approaches.

“What do you think, Xan, D?”

“C-plus, maybe a D. Hard to tell.”

“Oh, come on, definitely a D!” Jesse laughs.

“Hey, guys, what are you talking about?” she asks, brightly. Startled, they jump apart.

A pause.

“Um….chemistry,” Jesse says. 

“Yeah, um, our chem grades are really bad. Can you help us study?” Xander adds.

_Yeah, right,_ Willow thinks. _Testosterone’s a chemical, I guess._


	2. Hate

“I know what you’re after.” Oh yeah? Some dusty thick old book with “Vampyr” on the cover—and she was pretty sure that wasn’t even spelled right—was so totally not what she was after. She had left all that in L.A. and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let it follow her here.

I hate this, Buffy thought, slumping in her cafeteria chair. This whole stupid Slayer business. Vampires. God, I hate those guys. And that stupid librarian, with his “vampyr” book and his ridiculous three-piece suit in this heat. I think I hate him most of all.


	3. Dizzy

Giles sighed, watching her turn and flounce out of the library. A part of his brain that he tried to repress noted how suitable a cheerleading uniform was for flouncing. No, unsuitable. Definitely quite unsuitable.

There was nothing suitable about Buffy, he thought, turning to the meager solace of his teapot. Generations of Watchers had attempted to unravel the enigma of how the Powers chose each new Slayer, and had failed. He was certainly mystified. He mused regretfully on his growing certainty that Buffy’s tenure as the Chosen one would be brief. This dizzy teenager would never survive the Hellmouth.


	4. Race

I used to love running. It was challenging, and the thrill of passing the other girls, crossing the finish line first, never failed to satisfy me. Then, all of a sudden, it was too easy. 

Coach couldn’t understand why I quit track; she kept talking about my world-class, Olympic potential. But it was competing I had lived for, not just winning. 

Now the opposing team is something different: fast, strong, deadly. It’s not about medals and championships anymore, although I’m still part of a team. But even a rough night slaying is better than the best race I ever ran.


	5. Youth

It took him by surprise. He had come to Sunnydale expecting Buffy to be a bit of a handful. She was a Wildcard Slayer after all. What Giles hadn’t been prepared for was her total lack of understanding that her calling wasn’t a job she could do when she wanted. He hadn’t expected her to have friends, and such loyal ones at that. He wasn’t ready for her capricious nature or her desire to be a cheerleader. But most unexpected was how much her rebellious nature reminded him of himself at her age and how it made him smile.


	6. Mothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during _Witch_

He was the one who wanted a child, but I got stuck with raising the kid. Not to mention the effort it took to get my figure back, struggle through cosmetology school, be a single mom. I’ve had enough. 

She’s got everything I want—youth, those wonderful carefree high school years—and all she can do is stumble through it. Pathetic! Well, I’m done giving up my life and my dreams for her. I’m taking it back, and this time I won’t marry some dumb jock and get knocked up at nineteen. This time, it’s all about what I want.


	7. Unexpected

It was quite clear back in England, where the roles of Slayer and Watcher had been well defined for centuries. _Working in utter secrecy, the Watcher’s authority and knowledge directs the Slayer’s strength to keep the darkness at bay._ It had always been so. 

The Council had no understanding of what he would face in Sunnydale. A Slayer who wanted to have friends, be a cheerleader, go out dancing. Civilians, ordinary teenagers who insisted on their right to help the Slayer. It was simply unheard of. 

Nothing in Rupert Giles’ training had prepared him for Buffy Summers and the Slayerettes.


	8. A Simpler Life

Working at the Council had been steady, predictable and thoroughly dull. Giles hated the endless drone of scholarship and meetings, but he played the game well. While he had a talent for study, he craved action, and the only action available to a Watcher was assignment to the active Slayer. 

He’d gotten what he wanted. Some days he wasn’t sure if it was reward or punishment. Why had he coveted the job of sending children into mortal peril, with the occasional head injury for a change of pace? 

Unexpectedly, he found himself nostalgic for interminable meetings, poorly-lit offices, and tedium.


	9. Unexpected

I figured this year would be a lot like last year. Me and Jesse would have crushes on girls who wouldn’t even look at us, Willow would keep me from flunking out. Mom and Dad would have the same drunken fight every night. I would keep wondering what was the point. 

Then I got a crush on the new girl, and she’s more than just cute. One day it’s pop quiz, suddenly it’s rain of frogs, vampires, demons, and fighting evil between gym and biology class.

Never thought I’d be spending this much time in the library, that’s for sure.


	10. Absence

Something was bothering him, and he wasn’t sure what. 

Okay, lots of things: for one, vampires and demons were real, and his hometown was built on something called a Hellmouth. And Buffy: she was, well, Buffy, and his sixteen-year-old body couldn’t help noticing that, sometimes in embarrassing ways.

But this was different, like an itch in the back of his brain that he couldn’t quite reach, until one day in the library. Willow slipped into a seat at the table, and as they looked at the empty chair between them, their eyes met.

Jesse. He should have been there.


	11. Sacrifice

He rejoined the Watcher’s Council. He let go of friends and freedom, forsaking the thrills of demon-raising, fighting, and playing rock and roll to a screaming crowd. He comforts himself with the knowledge that the screams were more due to excess drink than the band’s dubious talents, that the friends he lost were lost already, to drugs and magick.

It’s a cold comfort, this truth, that he has made the right choices. But when a bright-haired teenager bounces into the library, still capable of joy, even this latest sacrifice seems worthwhile.

“You saved me the last jelly donut? Thanks, Giles!”


	12. Liquids

No matter how exhausted she is, Buffy always showers after patrol. She’s developed a minor addiction to fancy bath products: expensive shampoos and conditioners, scented bath gels and lotions. Under the luxurious flow of hot water she rinses off the dust, then drops a dollop of pastel-tinted stuff in her hand and rubs it into her skin, inhaling the artificial scent of mangos. Afterward, she massages her legs with a pearl-white lotion that smells of vanilla. 

It makes her feel like a real girl, the kind who never goes to cemeteries at night, who doesn’t believe in vampires and demons.


	13. Sound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during _Prophecy Girl_

They enter the tunnel and Xander can barely keep up, and he doesn’t trust the vampire ahead of him but it’s her only chance, if they’re not already too late. He’s terrified.

No time for that.

Buffy’s face down in water and his mind is in hyperdrive, trying to remember the First Aid course he took in eighth grade, he and Willow bent over a plastic dummy practicing CPR. He can hear his own pulse pounding as he breathes, pushes, rhythm, come on, breathe, come on, come on….

She inhales sharply, coughs. It’s the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard.


End file.
